Our dog Katie definitely gets motion sickness. On a regular 120 mile trip to visit relatives, she's often sick as a dog! We've found out from trial and error that if we don't feed her on the day we travel, then it lessens the chance of her being ill, but she still looks as if she feels under the weather. Once she's out of the car, she soon returns to her bouncy self.

Sam, the family huntaway used to endure a journey through the Mangamuka gorge on a regular basis in a dog box attached to the back of the car. Once of twice, when running,late we heard noise from the back and stopped to find Sam looking depressed. Great gouts of sticky slobberhanging from her mouth indicated (to us, vets we aren't)that Sam felt like throwing up. Needless to say we toned down the driving. Given a choice Sam prefers to travel IN the car .

Horses get seasick but can't vomit (something to do with the anatomy of their intestines). The resulting condition, colic, is painful and often fatal. My mother used to work for Sealink and they transported racehorses between Ireland and Scotland. The ferries were required to carry a humane killer and the captain was supposed to put down any horse that became sick. The captains, not surprisingly, were not keen on this so in the end they stopped carrying horses.

As equine herbalists we have treated a number of race horses for motion sickness. After an especially rough Cook Straight crossing with treatment one particular horse performed very well. After a previous smooth crossing without treatment he did very badly. Not conclusive but this certainly points towards motion sickness.

As a dog breeder for over 35 years, I have found that dogs get carsick (duh), and that there is an inherited component to motion sickness in dogs. I've kept pedigree notes for generations and have found that in certain bloodlines, over 80% of the dogs get sick enough to vomit in the first 5 minutes of the journey to the dog show, and in some bloodlines, less than 10% of the dogs get sick enough to throw up on a car journey. You can guess one reason why I have moved away from certain bloodlines!!

I know for certain that gerbils and piglets are motion sick if subjected to rought transport. Having suffered from a middle ear/ balance problem myself (and the inevitable nausea), I'm fairly sure it's a general mammalian phenomenon, after all mammals use the same basic biological balance setup.

All right, a few misconceptions here. Dogs and cats certainly get motion sickness, which can be relieved by the use of sedatives or anti-emetics. However, the vast majority of animals "grow out" of it on further exposure - thus, almost all puppies will salivate and then vomit profusely when travelled, but as they become older and more accustomed to the sensation, they become desensitised to it. In the case of horses, nausea per se does NOT lead to colic, and even if it did, it would be easily treated with hyoscine. The humane killers on ships and aircraft are kept in case of a horse going berserk (which happens very occasionally) and either mortally injuring itself or trying to kick the side out of the aircraft. The problem in these cases is that once a horse becomes too excited or stressed, sedatives have little or no effect upon it, being totally counteracted by the excitatory neurotransmitters and the "catecholamine storm".

Having taken many long trips with dogs, I've had numerous bad experiences with dogs and motion sickness (or the ones that won't settle down and constantly jump around). After one trying trip, a friend's vet son gave me the remedy: give the dog the antihistamine Benedryl, 25mg per 10 pounds. It works like a charm.

My dog used to get car sick as a puppy and would pull against his lead whenever he approached the car. But after a couple months he was absolutly fine and now happily travels in the car with us all the time.

But more importantly, why do we get sea/car sick at all? Given that transport is a relatively recent innovation, how could such a reaction to it have evolved? I don't buy the poison mushroom theory. If the disconnect between what our inner ears and our eyes sense makes our brain think we are hallucinating from injested poisons, why don't other hallucinogens, or hallucinations from amy cause, make us vomit?

I do now believe that dogs get car sick, especially if you look at the Last word post called CHAIN GANG in transport section.. :) the reader used a technique to prevent the family dog from being car sick.Shaun MacLeod, Scotland

actually Olivia, some hallucinogens - even alcohol - do make you vomit until you are "used" to their effects. Every person is different. Just look at a young person drinking, many of them get sick when they get drunk for the first time...

The following answer has been selected and edited by New Scientist staff

Horses are unable to vomit, except in extreme circumstances, because of a tight muscle valve around the oesophagus. So it is difficult to know whether or not they feel sick. Other monogastric animals can vomit. Younger cats and dogs frequently vomit during their first car journeys but rapidly become accustomed to travel and no longer suffer sickness. In the UK a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist has recently been licensed as a treatment for motion sickness in dogs as it reduces the urge to vomit.

The following answer has been selected and edited by New Scientist staff

Motion sickness is common among animals, affecting domestic animals of all kinds. A carsick dog is not only pathetic, but messy. In his unforgettable book, A Sailor's Life, Jan De Hartog wrote: "My worst memories of life at sea have to do with cattle. Two things no sailor will ever forget after such an experience are the pity and the smell... cattle get seasick, and the rolling of the ship terrifies the wits out of them. A seasick monkey or pup may be amusing and easy to deal with, but five hundred head of cattle in the throes of seasickness are a nightmare..." He also mentioned horses explicitly and even fish transported in unsuitable conditions may show signs of disorientation.

Motion sickness is ubiquitous because all vertebrates have organs of balance and they correlate balance with feedback from other senses to stay upright. When movement causes say, visual information to conflict with balance, the brain of a sensitive individual interprets the disorientation as a symptom of poisoning and a typical reaction is to vomit to clear the gut.

The following answer has been selected and edited by New Scientist staff

Both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton took ponies with them to Antarctica. On the way they experienced some appalling weather, and both noted how badly affected their animals were. They did, however, perk up when the storms abated. Similarly, Scott's dogs spent most of the storms curled up or howling, suggesting they too were suffering. Animals with a similar auditory system to ours would suffer from motion sickness, because it is caused by the confusion of auditory and visual inputs.

Horses can get travel sick{butfor some reason they can't vomit}.They sometimes might get dizzy but they don't cough or anything like that. But watch out some horses when they feel bad bite and rear up kicking{ trust me from experience!!!}

Horses have a stronger body than any humans body does. They don't get travel sick but they do get sea sickness sometimes. If you have questions on horses contact me at JennyWhinny4@gmail.com or 937-766-3833

The Last Word explores the science of everyday things. Both the questions and the answers are provided by the smartest people we know – you, the New Scientist users. You can post your answers in the comments under each blog post. More about The Last Word.